#i get it i haven't seen rebels but you could at least make a good show

[teememdee]

I enjoyed this show for exactly one thing and they couldn't even wrap any of it up in an even remotely satisfying way. When I tell you that was one of my least favorite star wars things I've watched

[ratboyy-withtheexistentialdread]

Nevermore Chapter 97

Spoilers ahead, lads. Skedaddle if you don't fast pass. EDIT I guess I’ve said too much in this post and need to pull it back a little. So imma gonna edit it so it doesn’t say too much about this chapter.

Alright, first my reaction cause HOLY HELL those last few panels really got me like

I really had to put my phone down and talk myself through them. Now, lets talk about what I gained from this chapter and the infamous Annabel Lee. I've noticed, at least in the comment section, the fandom really doesn't care for Annabel's character and its difficult to know where the animosity has come from. Tumblr obviously loves her but us heathens support women's rights and wrongs (Don't we gents?) Many call her a sociopath or what’s happens in the last few panels. Annabel is indeed ruthless, calculating and stone cold but she obviously cares. She cares for Lenore above everything. It can be easy to see this as obsession as we really haven't seen her care about much else or even herself. But one comment on the Webtoon brought up a very valid point which I've also picked up on.

Annabel and Lenore in life were very isolated and broken people when they met one another. Annabel, broken and then rebuilt into a prim and proper lady. Lenore, broken physically and mentally and closed off from the world.

Meeting each other saved them. They were no longer alone. There was an understanding between them at least that we know of.

Their differences though is what divides them in death.

Annabel played games, and masked her true self around her father and family connections. She now makes games of situations to retain what little control she had in life over a society she knew she could never break the rules of. A Game that was always rigged against her.

Lenore rebelled against society. She fled the estate to escape a suitor, was bound to the attic and ostracized by her family, she then faked her death and posed as man to court Annabel, the one person who cared for her.

Lenore wants to break the rules of the deans Death Game. Annabel wants to follow them.

It’s all they’ve ever known.

Before it was only them that mattered. Now Lenore has so much more to fight for and Annabel still only has Lenore. Both are right in their own way of playing the game but it pains the other to witness.

Annabel, I’m sure is aware that the Deans are not all they seem to be and won’t simply allow the students to turn the tables on them if they played how Lenore wants to.

And playing Annabel’s way means the callous death of many many people that do deserve another chance at life.

Now. I do have to agree with Annabel in the sense that Lenore forgets

This is a Death Game

Right now the “villainous” characters show their true face with pride and the “hero’s” are charming and true but as we get down to the wire, it’s going to get grey. There are no good or bad at the end of these games, only survival.

Could Annabel show some restraint and more tact when speaking strategy and making plans with Lenore? Absolutely. She’s little too giddy about sweeping some pieces off the board.

Lenore also needs to stop being so naive. She saw first hand what exactly the Deans are capable of in Dreamland, it put the fear of god in her.

In fairness to both characters though they and we are still missing big pieces of what happened between them and what their causes of death were. Which could hold big aspects of their characterization.

Maybe Lenore was originally very callous about others. In life, aside from Theo and Annabel, we’ve never really seen her interact with others. Perhaps this is the Lenore Annabel speaks of.

Anyway, I’m rambling. In conclusion, I’m a bit disappointed in Nevermores comment section. I enjoy Annabel’s character although some parts do worry me a bit but I have hope Red and Flynn have plans to curve this to a satisfying reason and conclusion.

That cliffhanger, boy howdy, what the fuck is Lenore gonna do…

[whumperstorm]

Supressing Fire - Part 3.5

Content: vampire whumper, defiant whumpee, mild violence, begging, crying

Two scenes from Keegan's captivity that aren't quite long enough their own chapters. Featuring Keegan trying to rebel however she can, and Kane earning his "Not As Much of a Jerk as You Could Have Been" Award.

Part 1/Previous/Next

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One evening, as Kane feeds, Keegan's eyes wander over his shoulder. She just barely suppresses a gasp when she sees it. Her little art project, taped to her punching bag and crumpled from numerous bouts of abuse by Keegan's fists. It was an excellent improvement to her self care routine, in her opinion. After Kane's generous donation of fresh bruises after she “sighed disrespectfully" last week. But one that should not have been left out after use.

Keegan rips her gaze away from it and stares a hole into the floor instead. Maybe he won't see it?

Of course he sees it.

"What is that?" he demands, stalking toward it and ripping the paper off--a crude portrait of what looks to be him. Scribbled in crayons.

"Um-" She says dumbly. "You weren't supposed to see that."

"It's not supposed to fucking be in my house!" Kane tears the paper in two, crumpling it and tossing it to the floor. "I thought this punching bag was supposed to make you better behaved, not a sneaky, disobedient little brat. Maybe I should take it away after all, if it's doing you no good!"

The best way Keegan knows to get out of this mess is to apologize. To show respect and beg Kane for forgiveness so he doesn't get angrier. That is not what she does.

"Oh come on, It's just a drawing!" She huffs. "I've been good haven't I? This wouldn't have bothered you at all if you hadn't seen it!"

Kane storms over and backhands her across the face.

"I will not tolerate disrespect!" he screams. "This is not what being good looks like! You will learn your place!"

The strike hurts. Keegan's head snaps to the side and she lets out a shout of pain, but she doesn’t back down. "My God, grow a fucking spine!!" She spits, standing up to tower over him. "I've been your perfect little pet for months! Since I can't knock your lights out, I used what I got. At least this Kane was nicer to look at!"

Kane shoves her, sending her toppling to the ground, then lands a hard kick in her side.

"You've improved. I'd hardly call you perfect," he spits. "This is exactly the problem with you. Nothing works. You know what? Say goodbye to the punching bag. Clearly, this isn't working." He goes to take it down.

For some reason, that sends a jolt of panic through Keegan's chest. More so than the abuse. She fights to get air back into her lungs and reaches out towards Kane.

"W-wait!"

It's not really about the bag. She has other amenities. But they're all generic. The bag is the only thing that's hers. A piece of her personality to light up her dreadful little prison.

She can't bear the thought of losing what little she has.

Keegan pulls herself up to kneel respectfully. "Don't take it, I-I'm sorry." It may not be enough now. Not after her outburst.

It's fake. So obviously fake, how she only deigns to respect Kane when she has something to lose. It only fans the fire inside him further. He needs to break her foolish pride.

He glares down at her. "Beg."

Keegan glares a hole into the floor. She hates him. She hates him with every cell in her body. But punching bag or not, she can't back out now. Any more rebellion and she'll be black and blue for days.

She hangs her head, face burning in shame. "Please... sir. I'm sorry. Please give me another chance... No more disrespect, whether you're present or not."

"Hmph. I'll believe it when I see it. Watch it, human. I'm the one in control here."

And with that, Kane leaves, slamming the door behind him.

Keegan lets out a breath when he leaves. Never has she felt more helpless and tiny. She can’t even exist in peace without the threat of Kane’s interference. Everything is a fight in this place. A fight she's bound to lose each and every time.

But, well... she glances up. At least she still has the punching bag.

She groans, flopping miserably back down into bed.

------

Things continue as normal from there. Kane still needs to violently discipline his human on a regular basis, but the frequency has gone down a bit. He wonders if it's really the punching bag, or just a coincidence. The fact that it seems to be making her behave better is the only reason he doesn't go through with taking it away.

Many months pass and they fall into a routine. Some days are bad, with a defiant human he needs to correct, and some days are good, with the human coming out and playing chess or watching movies with him, countering his debilitating loneliness. 

One such good day, while they're watching a movie, the protagonist goes to celebrate his birthday. Kane usually skips this part, hating the sour reminder, but he doesn't want to raise questions from the human. He lets it play without comment.

In all honesty, Keegan hasn't thought about her birthday at all. She's had too much on her mind and no one around to remind her that it's coming up. But the movie scene has her realizing what month they're in. Her birthday is in three days. She’s hit with a wave of depressed bitterness. 

It was nowhere near her birthday when she was kidnapped, so it's yet another reminder of how long she's been here. Not only that, but she's turning twenty-one. That's a pretty big milestone and she gets to what, sit in an empty room and sing happy birthday to herself? She won't even get a hug from her sister. She knows her hunting guild enjoys throwing surprise parties. She wonders if they'd have planned one for her. 

Her thoughts spiral, and to her horror, she starts to cry. She hardly ever cries. She hates crying in front of others, and here she is sobbing in front of Kane of all people. She tries to hold it back, silent tears falling down her cheeks. She can't even excuse herself. She has to ask to do anything around here and he'll obviously notice her tears if she asks to leave. She sits there rigidly, until eventually a tiny, involuntary sob escapes.

Kane is so wrapped up in his own birthday-adjacent pity party that he doesn't notice the human crying until he hears her sob. He turns to her, caught off-guard. "What's wrong?" he asks. He hasn't been disciplining her, so he's not sure why she's upset.

Keegan is mortified. She hastily scrubs at her face to wipe away the tears, like that'll somehow make it less obvious. God he's actually asking what's wrong? Like he'd care about a human's birthday of all things. He'd probably get mad that she's even making a fuss about it. She can already hear his cruel comment. ‘You’re not a person. You’re food. You don’t have a birthday.’ 

"It’s- it’s fine." She dismisses. "Can I go back to my room?"

Kane turns off the movie. Something isn't right here. The human's never acted like this before.

"Tell me what's wrong and then you can go," he compromises. Maybe he's feeling soft because of the feelings thinking about his birthday dredged up, or maybe it's the disappointment at a nice night spent not on his lonesome being cut short. "You won't be in trouble."

Keegan puts her head in her hands for a moment, sighing. Even her own sadness doesn't belong to her. But, at least he said she won't be in trouble, and Kane has yet to lie to her. "It's not important. I just... realized my birthday is in three days." Her voice grows quieter as she speaks, mumbling by the end and looking away as fresh tears bubble up. "Can I go now?" She wants nothing more than to get away from this humiliating situation.

For the first time, Kane feels some sort of connection with his human, some sort of guilt for his actions. Here she is, unable to celebrate her birthday- because of him.

"You may go," he concedes, trying to process the unfamiliar emotions.

Keegan wastes no time, scurrying back to her room. She spends a while in the bathroom, calming down and washing her face. She doesn't even feel like using the punching bag, instead lying in bed wallowing in self pity the rest of the night. The conversation isn't brought back up in the following days, so Keegan hopes that's the end of it. The evening of her birthday however, she wakes up in an awful mood.

Kane, for the life of him, decides to do research. It's embarrassing, going to the library and asking for books on human celebrations, but he does it anyway. Most of what he finds is anthropological research on human religious practices, but he does eventually find something on birthdays. Human birthday celebrations seem to be similar to vampire ones in many ways, except for the cake. The cake is apparently a very big part of it, a large, sweet human food. Other than that, the customs of parties and presents are similar. 

On the night of Keegan's birthday, Kane comes in and feeds from her as normal. Just because it's her birthday doesn't mean he doesn't need to eat. But after that... "I have something for you. Come on out." He turns to exit the human quarters, gesturing for her to follow him out.

Keegan endures the bite. Same bullshit as always. When Kane invites her out, she follows, curiously. She'd rather stay holed up in her room today, but Kane doesn't usually get her things she hasn’t asked for.

Waiting on the mug table is a large, elaborate birthday cake, the kind that must have cost hundreds of dollars. Next to it is a medium-sized gift wrapped in shiny paper.

"Happy birthday," Kane says awkwardly.

Keegan stares in utter shock. "You- what?" She looks at Kane, then back at the table. Is he serious? It can't be a prank. She can tell from here that the cake is real. But this is a man who has stolen her life away, and her blood, and abused her countless times over the past months. And who's now celebrating her birthday?

"...Why?" She asks quietly.

Kane glances briefly at her, then realizes he's far too embarrassed of his own sincerity to make eye contact, and stares forward at the table instead. "It's your birthday. It deserves to be celebrated."

"oh..." Keegan is tearing up again, but controls it better this time. It feels like a piece of her humanity has returned. She might be nothing but food here, and constantly referred to as "human" instead of by name, but she's still deserving of a birthday? That's a better gift than anything that could be in that box. She still doesn't understand why he cares, he’s the one who put her in this situation after all, but it’s something.

“Thank you…” She steps hesitantly towards it, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop, but when he doesn't stop her she kneels down next to the table. "Can I open it?" She asks, reaching for the gift.

"You're welcome. Go ahead," Kane encourages. This is weird. Vampires aren't supposed to celebrate their humans' birthdays. She's food. But... he can't deny her this. He just can't.

When Keegan opens the gift, she finds some very fancy hard cider inside.

"I wasn't sure... um. This was one thing I knew you liked that you didn't already have," Kane explains. "Just for your birthday. No refills."

She's not sure why, maybe the way he awkwardly explains himself, or how ridiculous the whole situation is, but it has Keegan bursting out into laughter.

She doesn't want Kane to think she's mocking him so she quickly sputters out, "This is great, thanks." She takes a breath to get control over herself then adds, "You gonna be able to survive my nasty alcohol blood?"

"I'll manage," Kane says, unoffended. In his eyes, she's only insulting herself.

The rest of the night is a peaceful one, spent doing whatever activities the human wants. Though Kane grimaces at the taste of her blood on occasion as she makes her way through the cider in the coming weeks, he makes no comment on it. It was her birthday gift.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taglist: @whumpsday @not-a-space-alien @anomalys-taxonomy @what-if-i-just-did @dragonqueenslayer6 @jumpywhumpywriter @writereleaserepeat

[opreaadriann]

Side Story - Olivia Meets The Fighting Rooster

Ah, Thomas Rourke High. A name synonymous with caviar-fueled lunches and trust funds the size of Rhode Island. And now, miraculously, it was my stomping ground. Maybe it was the familiar faces – a carryover from my elementary school days – or maybe it was the fierce determination to ditch my "loser" label. Whatever it was, a surprising calm washed over me.

Let's be honest, I haven't exactly been prom queen material. But after a full-on makeover that would make even a Kardashian jealous, I was ready to infiltrate the ranks of the popular. Maybe even snag a friend or two who wouldn't mysteriously "disappear" when I came around. But fate, it seems, had other plans. My attempt at a friendly bus ride ended with an empty seat beside me. Guess my makeover needed some work.

Emerging from the bus, I was greeted by a sight that could curdle milk.  My "old" acquaintances were rolling up in style. Not cars, mind you, that'd be pedestrian. No, these paragons of popularity had graduated to a freaking limo. Yes, the big five, Michael, Cecily, Vivian, Isaac, and Haley all get out of a fucking limo. It’s probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. Weird, Connor is not with them. They always used to walk hand in hand back in elementary school.

(...)

Well, that was a good start to my school life. The rest of the day I attend my first classes and get to know the teachers, only to realize I somehow haven’t talked to any of my colleagues yet. Lunchtime is here and I go to the cafeteria to finally make some friends.

I walk into the large room and the first thing I see is a person I really don’t like, getting right up into my face.

“I knew it! You’re Olivia Hartley, right? Remember me? Isaac Freeman! We went to the same elementary school!”

“...What do you want, freckles?”

I quickly scout the room to see where his friends are and notice that they are already sitting next to a group of older-looking students. Damn, they’re already in with the seniors?

The kids around stop to watch the interaction between us as I seem to establish myself as the opposition to the popular kids. Oo, I’d love to represent the rebels of the school! That’s pretty cool, right?

Isaac comes closer and whispers in my ear, “Don’t act like we’re not friends, bitch.” He then takes a step back, smiles, and gets up in my personal space again to hug me, “I’m so happy to see you! Come, sit with us!”

Luckily I really hate this guy, so I say, “Nah, I’d rather sit alone.”

I can hear a couple of oohs and aahs as the cool kids table suddenly looks at the interaction with more interest. Ah, yes, the beef between two freshmen is too interesting to miss out on.

Isaac decides to back down for now and just smiles, “Sure thing, go right ahead!” He then walks back to the cool kids table and starts talking about something with my old colleagues and the seniors. I walk ahead to get some food as some people start talking to me. Before I knew it, the tallest guy at Isaac’s table – a walking wall of muscle – rose on top of his chair.

"Attention, cafeteria!" he boomed, clapping his hands. "From now on, nobody talks to Olivia Hartley, or they'll answer to me!" He glares around the room, then leans down to Vivian. A moment later, he straightens up and points at me. "The goth chick. Nobody talks to her."

All of the guys and girls sitting at the cool kids table start laughing as the people who were talking to me earlier start walking away. Eh, that could have gone worse. At least everyone knows who I am. That's the closest I’ll get to being popular, huh?

🙇 Full story on Patreon. 🙇

[martianbugsbunny]

Rainbow Mists In Which He Stands (A Kalluzeb Fic)

Had to do something short and sweet for these guys, I'm being consumed by them. I haven't decided yet if I might expand this into a three-part series, with this one, a Kanera one, and a Sabezra one (which, fair warning, would probably be platonic bc I have complicated feelings about them being a couple). The point is, this is a delightful little break for Kalluzeb and they're having a nice time together. IN case you were wondering, the title is another Wayne Visser reference; that part of the poem kinda melted and gooified together in my brain like crayons left in the sun with that art @kappamelone did of trans kallus a little while ago to create my favorite scene in here (which will be terribly obvious when you see it). Read on and enjoy!

The crew of the Ghost had been offered (ordered) shore leave for a few days after a stunning misadventure involving Chopper, a bag of explosives, and a remarkable inability to count. Kanan said it was because their nerves were all stripped after that; Hera muttered about being put in time-out and kicked a couple of crates.

Zeb, like Ezra and Sabine, didn’t really care why they had been sent away to a remote moon for a bit of quiet time. He joined them in making excited plans about how to make the most of it, especially after learning that Kallus had been commanded to go with them.

“They want me to keep an eye on you,” he said, then a little more irately, “I’m pretty sure Rebel Command is as sick of me as they are of you.” Having been recruited into the Rebellion by the Specters, he had picked up their annoying habits of rarely listening to orders in the way in which they were intended.

But once again, Zeb didn’t care why Kallus had been packed up and shipped off with the Ghost’s crew, and he convinced Kallus to stop caring at least until they got back from leave. Then he could be annoyed about it all he liked.

The minute they landed, Ezra and Sabine raced out of the Ghost, shoving each other to the side, to take in the view. The planet was warm, covered in tall trees with vines hanging from the branches and brightly colored spiky flowers. Zeb had never seen another planet quite like it; the kids probably hadn’t, either.

Kanan and Zeb sat down together on the ramp, while Hera went through her post-flight checks and powered down the ship. “I used to go camping with the other Honor Guards,” Zeb said. He was still a little bit surprised, himself, every time he mentioned his life on Lasan. It seemed to happen more frequently these days; he wondered if maybe letting go of his pain enough to make room in his life for Kallus had helped him be more at peace with it in general. “I could show the kids how to set up tents.”

Kanan smiled, his head tilted towards where Sabine was gushing over how good the spiky flowers would be as pigments for her paints. “They’d get a real kick out of that,” he said. “You’ll probably have to drag Hera off the Ghost by her ankles, though.”

“What about my ankles?” Hera sat down between them, leaning against Kanan’s arm. “I guess—to spare you boys the effort—I could be convinced to spend the night outside. Sleeping among the stars is one thing, but there’s something special about sleeping under them, too.”

Kanan’s grin grew wider, and he kissed the side of Hera’s head. “You old romantic,” he teased.

Zeb rolled his eyes, standing up to stretch. “I’ll get the tents,” he said. Let those two have their moment. He went back into the Ghost and hefted the top off of a storage crate that he’d stuffed a couple of tents into before leaving the base. He’d only been able to find three; he expected Sabine and Hera would probably share a tent and leave Ezra and Kanan to commune with the new planet’s nature in that Jedi way of theirs—and of course he and Kallus would bunk together.

Speaking of Kallus, where had he gotten off to? He was prone to sort of drifting off while everyone else was busy, and half the time he neglected to even mention to Zeb where he was going. It was hard for him, Zeb thought, when he was with the Spectres; they had been a family unit when he met them, and he hadn’t figured out how to integrate into it just yet.

Zeb stopped to set down the tents outside before following the path that Kallus’s boots had left in the soft grass. Ezra and Sabine had stopped their frenzied exploration to lay back on the ground for a minute, and he gently nudged Sabine’s shoulder with his foot as he passed. It was good for them to enjoy themselves. They didn’t get to be kids often enough.

He didn’t mind getting the time to relax himself. He didn’t really care how long it would take him to catch up to Kallus, with fresh, greenery-scented air to breathe and nothing to distract him from appreciating the scenery. There were certain bright orange flowers that reminded him of ones that grew on Lasan, and soft white ones that looked like the drifts of snow on Bahryn.

Zeb finally stopped when he saw the waterfall up ahead. It was one of the most stunning views he’d ever seen.

Standing at the very edge of the fall, feet submerged in the pool it created, was Kallus, shirt, jacket, and boots discarded on a nearby rock, his head tilted back ever-so-slightly and his damp hair clinging to his face and neck. Where the water spilled across his freckled shoulders, it shifted and shimmered in the light, the mist forming a rainbow in the air like a cape.

There was that feeling Zeb was still trying to get used to: looking at Kallus and being sure that his heart was going to beat against his lungs so hard he would pass out, like there wasn’t enough room for love and oxygen in him at the same time and his body would rather go without the oxygen. It was easy to say he had never been in love with anyone the way he had fallen for Kallus. He wondered sometimes at the designs of the Ashla, but he was certain it had guided them towards each other, softening each of them in turn to make what they had now possible.

Zeb released a sigh and walked across the clearing to stand at the edge of the pool. “Enjoying nature all by yourself, handsome?” he teased. Kallus’s face instantly broke into a wide, unguarded smile, such that Zeb only ever saw when they were alone together, his amber eyes lighting like sparks from a flint. There weren’t many lines by those eyes yet; like Zeb, Kallus had spent more of his life frowning or scowling than he had smiling, but he was making some progress. A few of the worry lines, at least, seemed to have become less pronounced, now that Kallus was a little bit less tense than he had been as an Imperial agent.

“I don’t have to be,” Kallus said. Zeb stepped into the shallow water and waded over to Kallus, ripples fanning out around his legs as he walked.

Zeb cupped his hands around Kallus’s upper ribcage, thumbs covering the beautiful twin scars beneath his pectorals. The lines were thick and pale, mostly even; only jagged at the edges. “Have I ever told you how much I like these?” he asked, leaning his forehead against Kallus’s.

“Every time you see me with my shirt off,” Kallus answered, resting his hands on Zeb’s forearms.

“Which isn’t often enough for my taste,” Zeb said. Kallus laughed (Ashla, did Zeb love that deep, hoarse laugh), fingers playing across a set of dark purple stripes that were a little bit darker still than the others on Zeb’s body.

“How long do you think we have before they miss us?” Kallus asked. His face was flushed from sun—it made the freckles on his face seem just a little bit more vivid by contrast.

“A half hour before the kids hunt me down to set up the tents.”

Kallus smiled at him, more softly than before, but with just as much earnestness. “Ever the family man, aren’t you, Garazeb.”

Then he put his arms around Zeb’s neck and kissed him, and there was nothing on the planet except the two of them and the stones beneath their feet and the mists spilling across their shoulders, and for just a moment nothing could ever be wrong again.

[loreholdlesbian]

Modern Horizons III Play Booster Challenge

With every set, I like to make a booster of custom cards that could be a part of the set. This one took a while, because of terminal brain no worky disease, but we got there. Hopefully I'll get bloomburrow out before Duskmourn releases, but no promises. Modern Horizons sets are always fun though, lots of funky designs you can do you can't do anywhere else. Which is perfect for this challenge- it's based on a challenge from GDS3, so I always try to be innovative in this challenge as if it were for that. This set had a few slots that were flux in their rarity, so I got to pick what those are, so there's a few rares and a several uncommons.

Art links:

Peaceful Retirement

Scion of Verdant Leylines

Fluxsteel Armor

Prophet of Broken Futures

Aether Excavation

Mutagenic Shell

Swallowing Wastewalker

Practiced Artistry

Bog Boon

Nyxborn Parasite

Forge Eidolon

Lumitusk Monstrosity

Moon Skulkin

Gauntlet of Strength

Rares

Card transcription

Peaceful Retirement 3W Enchantment Whenever an attacking creature you control dies, return it to the battlefield with a defender counter and an exalted counter on it. (Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each instance of exalted among permanents you control.)

End transcription

If there's one thing about me that'll be very evident by the end of this booster, I really love counters. Defender counters are one that haven't popped up yet, but I feel like they're sure to eventually. Here's me doing them. This is meant to work with the modified theme. This card is good at letting you play both defensively and offensively, with the exalted even making your offense continually better.

Card transcription

Scion of Verdant Leylines 4GG Enchantment Creature- Giant If Scion of Verdant Leylines is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield. If you do, it isn’t a creature. Trample Whenever an opponent is dealt combat damage by one or more green creatures you control, draw a card. 6/6

End transcription

Here's a variant on the leylines we've seen before; this time, they give you more if you play them for real rather than cheating them out. The limitation to green creatures acts as both a power limiter and a color pie one. I am worried a bit about the fact that you can blink this to get a big creature with this ability, but blinking enchantments is difficult at least.

Uncommons

Card transcription

Fluxsteel Armor 1W Artifact- Equipment For Mirrodin! (When this Equipment enters, create a 2/2 red Rebel creature token, then attach this to it.) Aura or Equipment swap 2W (2W: Exchange this Equipment with an Aura or Equipment from your hand.)

End transcription

And here comes the world's strangest equipment- no boost to the equipped creature, and no equip ability. For the longest time- literally I changed the card as I was writing this up- this had living weapon like the other equipment in the set (and gave the equipped creature +1/+1). But For Mirrodin! just works better. It makes the card more viable as a draft pick on its own as a better creature, and also even more importantly it makes it work better with more cards in the set, since the auras and equipment that swap in don't need to give a toughness boost. I liked the flavor of the living weapon version better, and it was more in line with the set, but the design is just better. This really isn't an equipment though, that's a lie. It's a token generator for aura and equipment decks. But I do think this is the best way to format this, cause it's hard to make "token body for an aura to attach to" work without it.

Card transcription

Prophet of Broken Futures 3 C/U Creature- Eldrazi Drone Devoid (This card has no color.) Ingest (Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player exiles the top card of their library.) When this creature dies, draw a card for each card exiled with it. 3/4

End transcription

The thing about ingest is I don't actually think it's a bad mechanic, it just was used in the worst way possible. This card is my attempt to rectify that, and show it could be better. The other thing here is the hybrid colorless/colored mana. I think it's a great way to increase the amount of colorless-costing stuff in an environment without taking away from the colored cards it needs.

Card transcription

Aether Excavation 1R Sorcery You get EE (two energy counters). Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. Then you may pay EEEEE. If you do, you may play that card without paying its mana cost. Retrace (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)

End transcription

One kind of design I like to do with recursion mechanics is making it so the card plays differently on future castings- and energy is great for this. So great there's another one later on in this booster. It means you can build up the energy on the first few castings, and then eventually get to spend it. This card certainly works a lot better in an energy deck, where you can free cast spells more often, but I think it plays well just on its own.

Card transcription

Mutagenic Shell 1G Artifact- Equipment Equipped creature has “Whenever you cast a spell, you may adapt X where X is that spell’s mana value.” (If that creature has no +1/+1 counters on it, put X +1/+1 counters on it.) Equip 2

End transcription

Fun fact- adapt is keyword action, so you can use it as part of triggered abilities. That felt like fun design space to explore that ties in well with the modified theme, especially on an equipment. And I just liked making an equipment you move around a lot; you try to get it on a creature right before you cast a big spell, and then it does its thing but only once per creature.

Commons

Card transcription

Swallowing Wastewalker 5 C/W Creature- Eldrazi Devoid (This card has no color.) When this creature enters, exile target creature an opponent controls until this creature leaves the battlefield. Basic landcycling C/W (C/W, Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand, then shuffle.) 3/7

End transcription

Here's some more exploration of hybrid to up the amount of colorless mana in the set. I thought it made a good fit for a basic landcycling cycle, so you can use them to search up wastes if you need colorless mana or search up colored mana if you've drawn too many of your colorless producers.

Card transcription

Practiced Artistry 1U Sorcery Choose one- * Scry 2. You get EE (two energy counters). * Pay EE. If you do, draw two cards. Flashback 1U (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)

End transcription

Here's the other card that uses energy on a recursive spell. In an energy deck, this card is quite flexible. You might choose to get the energy both times, or you might be able to pay to draw both times. But in a non energy deck, the energy still lets you split up paying the 4 mana for scry 2 draw 2 in a way that wouldn't be possible without energy.

Card transcription

Bog Boon 2B Instant Target creature gets +3/+1 until end of turn. Put a wither counter on it. (That creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

End transcription

As I said in the beginning, I'm a counter girlie. I started around the time of Scars of Mirrodin, I can't help myself. And I really like the idea of wither, for a keyword counter, it just seems like good fun. So I wanted to make a simple common that used it.

Card transcription

Nyxborn Parasite 2B Enchantment Creature- Leech Bestow B (If you cast this card for its bestow cost, it’s an Aura spell with enchant creature. It becomes a creature again if it’s not attached to a creature.) Lifelink 3/2

End transcription

This set has a bestow theme, and I wanted to see ways to explore how to use it. This one doesn't use it as an aura at all, it just uses it as a cost reduction mechanic, that makes it so there's a delay before you get your creature. You need a creature to attach it to, and need that creature to die.

Card transcription

Forge Eidolon 3R Enchantment Creature- Spirit Bestow onto artifact 3R (If you cast this card for its bestow cost, it’s an Aura spell with enchant artifact. It becomes a creature again if it’s not attached to an artifact.) Enchanted artifact is an artifact creature with base power and toughness 4/4. 4/4

End transcription

Here's the other new thing I wanted to do with bestow. Modern horizons does designs like this all the time, a slight variant on a keyword, and it works well on bestow. This also ties into the RB artifacts theme, but at worst is just a well statted creature.

Card transcription

Lumitusk Monstrosity 4G Creature- Elephant Fish Beast Splice onto creature G (As you cast a creature spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card’s effects to that spell.) This creature enters with a vigilance counter on it. 5/5

End transcription

"Splice onto creature" is something i've experimented with for a while, and entering with counters is the best execution i've come up with. As with many of the designs here, it does something a bit weird, but it's also just perfectly serviceable as a well statted creature.

Card transcription

Moon Skulkin 2 Artifact Creature- Scarecrow 4: Target colorless creature gains flying until end of turn. 2/2 Even with Emrakul trapped in the silver moon, some souls still thrum to the sound of her whispers.

End transcription

There was a cycle of scarecrows in shadowmoor, the skulkin, that all had an activated ability that granted a creature of a particular color an appropriate keyword. Here's a secret sixth member of the cycle, that works well with the eldrazi theme of MH3. This one can hit itself, so the ability wanted to cost a good bit.

Reprint Slot

Card transcription

Gauntlet of Strength 4 Artifact [rare] Green creatures you control get +1/+1. Whenever you tap a Forest for mana, add an additional G.

End transcription

This was a very hard slot to fill. It's expressly a reprint, in a challenge that's about making new cards. But I do like making new cards, I didn't want to just pick a reprint and say it's here. For something like the strixhaven bonus sheet, I make a design that wouldn't make sense in the main set, uses a mechanic that set doesn't use. It's hard to make a card that doesn't feel modern horizons though. So eventually, I settled on a different approach- an alternate universe kind of deal. Take a card that in theory could be a good fit for a modern horizons reprint but has a few issues preventing that, and make a new version that doesn't have those issues. In my MH2 booster, I did an alternate version of Filth that granted menace, since swampwalk isn't considered to play well these days. Here, I did an alternate version of Gauntlet of Might- a card with three main problems. Firstly, the effect is green, not red. Secondly, the effect being symmetrical doesn't play well since it's color specific, so the potential downside is very all or nothing and very random. And thirdly, that card was reserved. There's every chance this card is a bit too good even for modern, but tbh it was just what I had and I wanted to finally get this booster out.

[catierambles]

Null Ch.6

Pairing: Incubus!Charles Brandon x Anna Williams (OFC)

WC: 829

Warnings: Reader discretion is advised. Minors DNI 18+ ONLY

@brattymum96 , @ouroboros113 , @peaches1958 , @summersong69 , @henryownsme , @fvckinghenrycavill , @raccoon-eyed-rebel

The rest of the week passed uneventfully, and they fell into a rhythm. He had coffee ready for her in the morning and stayed out of the study while she worked, and she had no problems when he had to leave suddenly for one reason or another. He had his life and she had hers. She was looking through her fridge, about to grab something to drink when she heard a noise behind her and she looked over her shoulder, expecting to see Charles, but seeing a woman instead.

"Um, hello?" She asked, turning around to face her, "How did you get in here?"

"How did you?" The woman asked.

"I live here." Anna said simply and the woman suddenly looked very interested.

"Do you now?" She asked and Anna nodded, "So you bought the old place?" Another nod. "I'm being dreadfully rude. I'm Ann, a friend of Charles. You do know about Charles, yes?"

"Yes, I know Charles." Anna said, "You're his…friend?"

"Well, you could say we're more…colleagues, in a way."

"Oh." Anna said and Ann squinted at her slightly.

"The knowledge radiating off of you. You know he's an incubus." Ann said and Anna nodded.

"That would make you a…"

"Succubus?" Ann supplied helpfully, "You would be correct. I haven't seen him in a while, thought I would pop 'round, see what the old boy is up to."

"I believe he's in the study." Anna said.

"But you," Ann said, "You are much more interesting. In a way. We had all wondered what grabbed his attention and refused to let go, and here you are. Let me get a good look at you." She walked towards her slowly, appraising her with slow sweeps of her eyes and Anna felt like she was being judged. "Bit ordinary, all things considered. Nothing really…spectacular about you, besides the fact that you're a yawning void where a person should be."

"Yes…um, I'm a--"

"Null? Oh yes, I can tell. Why you're barely even registering as alive."

"Excuse me?"

"I can tell I'm not your fancy, but I thought there would at least be something, but there's nothing, not a damn thing." Ann said, "So what is it about you that's got him so distracted? It can't be the sex. Unless you are truly breathtaking between the sheets, and let's be real here, the chances of that are slim to none given your condition." Condition? "I don't see anything about you that would catch and hold his attention."

"I…I don't know." Anna said, "You'd have to ask him."

"Oh, I will be, believe you me." Ann said, "Here's the thing…"

"Anna." 

"Anna. The fact that you do have Charles so captivated is a bit…odd. You see, he's one of the more prolific of us. Queens have worshiped at his feet and begged for his attention. Pious women of the cloth have forsaken their vows for simply the chance to be with him, and then you come along and he simply can't be bothered anymore." Ann said, "But I suppose everyone needs a hobby. Or a pity project, as the case may be. You should be honored by the attention he's heaped on you, especially seeing as he can't get anything worthwhile in return."

"Well, I am his friend and--" That made Ann laugh, cutting her off.

"Oh you poor deluded child, Charles doesn't have human female friends. I daresay he's incapable of it, given how they are nothing to him but a food source." Ann said, "Is that it? Does he still think he can feed from you? I'll have to have a talk with the poor thing, let him know that's a giant waste of his time. Every one of us knows that nulls are nothing but a waste of our time and aren't worth the effort."

"I--"

"Ann." They looked over, seeing Charles in the doorway, and he did not look happy to see her.

"Oh, hello, Charles!" Ann said, "I was just having a talk with your new pet. She seems to be laboring under some misconceptions about you and I thought I would set her straight."

"Leave, Ann."

"Oh, don't be like that, dearest! I was only--"

"I know what you were doing." Charles said, "Leave."

"Fine," Ann said, "Be that way, but you know where I'll be when you finally get bored of this one. Shouldn't take you long." She vanished from the kitchen and Charles went to Anna, reaching out and placing his hands on her shoulders gently.

"Are you all right?" He asked and she looked at him briefly, then away.

"Why…why wouldn't I be? She didn't try to hurt me, she just talked."

"Yes, that's why I'm worried about you."

"It's fine, Charles, she didn't say anything I haven't heard before." Anna said, "So don't worry, it's not worth the effort."

"Anna…"

"I'm going to take a nap." She said and shrugged out of his hands, walking around him and out of the kitchen.

[icescrabblerjerky]

twenty questions for fic writers

tagged by @senseandaccountability THANK YOU!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 200 exactly! I did not know this until I just went and checked.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 1,222,468 - I too have been at it for a long time, about fifteen years (and there is more of it on other sites lol)

3. What fandoms do you write for? Rusty Quill Gaming, Baldur's Gate 3, SWTOR (and other star wars related fandoms), Dragon Age, The Magnus Archives, Final Fantasy XIV, uh... and lots of little one offs for books and tiny podcast fandoms.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Mbmbam Archives (mbmbam/magnus crossover) with 949 (this still makes me laugh so much)

Seven Days (RQGaming, Zolf/Oscar) at 458

Sex, Death and Plants or: Four Seasons Total Landscaping (RQGaming AU, Zolf/Oscar/Grizzop) at 425

Willing to Wait for It (RQGaming, genfic) at 394

and

A Little Help (RQGaming, again Zoscar) at 384

Rusty Quill Gaming folks are super super supportive and awesome and I'm forever grateful they went on my dumb journeys with these characters with me.

5. Do you respond to comments? Always! I hope! I know sometimes I miss them when I'm away from my computer but they are definitely always read.

6. What���s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Mmmm, angsty-est?? I'm not one really for angsty endings, although I like angst in all the other bits. Probably the fic I wrote where Zolf is mourning Oscar. I honestly can't remember what it was called.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Sex Death and Plants ends in a massive polycule and the take down of a fascist asshole billionaire so I think it deffo qualifies as the happiest of my endings :D.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm LOL. Never directly. I have reports of people who dislike what I write but they never tell me to my face for some reason, it always gets around to me, usually about two years later, on the underground.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I do. I love writing smut. I don't write very graphic smut as a general rule but most of my fics will have one or two scenes in it and I've done a couple of kinktobers. Love it.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I've got a couple. One Dragon Age/Lucifer crossover that I wrote specifically for a friend. One aborted Firefly/Dragon Age Crossover that lives on FF.net I think if that site hasn't destroyed itself.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I've had enquiries about translating some into Russian but I've never actually seen if they followed through.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! Quite a few actually. Some of them haven't been published :D.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? I should say Zoscar. So I will. I love them your honour.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Gods I got a comment on my old Rebels fic "Talking to Strangers" and I read it again and went "this shit's good I should finish it" but that would involve me actually watching the rest of Rebels and I don't really watch TV any more and it just ends up being too hard.

16. What are your writing strengths? Dialogue and character voices, I think - at least for fic. I have a lot of fun trying to make what characters say feel like it could be lifted directly from the source material but isn't.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Description. Fucken' hate it. I'll do it but I'll moan about it for every single sentence.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? Very risky IMO and not something I'll do any more although I used to when I first started out. These days I'll write it in English but indicate which language it should be in in other ways.

19. First fandom you wrote for? If we wanna get technical I wrote my first fanfic when I was about ten years old. It was Sherlock Holmes fanfiction (the stories, not the series, since the series didn't come out for another twenty five years lol). Self insert time travel fic. I may still have it somewhere lol.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written? I love all my fanfictions equally (I really don't care for Mbmbam Archives). No that was a joke, I really do love all of them, my favourite tends to be the one I'm writing at the present moment. That said honourable mention should go to The Nature of Crystal (G'raha/WOL smut) because that one just arrived fully formed in my head one morning and tickled me.

I'll tag @feralkwe, @wishflower4, @zombolouge @makesometime and anyone else who would like to do it!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Stalker Hunting

I've done my little bits of Horizon Forbidden West the last couple of days. There are issues about spoons, because work's a mess right now, but sometimes you just need to fuck up a bandit camp or two. Maybe dig up some greenshine. OR ... stalk the Stalkers. Literally.

Bandit camp. Poonk. Poonk. POONK. Nobody saw me. Nobody engaged. And again, one guy kept talking about how "she must have gone to lick her wounds" when a) nobody even fired a shot at me and b) EVERYONE ELSE WAS DEAD. Eh well. POONK.

So much climbing. So many near misses, close calls, and running around. But several outright slabs of greenshine so it's entirely worth it.

Ooh, hey, new form of Burrower. Hi, Burrower! ...Bye, Burrower. POONK

The Gouge is still kicking my ass. I got most of it, including the cluster, but the one remaining fucking fragment of greenshine is not worth Outlast-meets-Subnautica with fucking Burrowers. I get why you can't shoot them with an arrow underwater. But why, why can you not just stab them?

Look. Bellowbacks. Even if I am blowing you up, there should be some of your sac webbing intact enough for me to use to upgrade my weapons and armour! But no! Every time I kerboom you with a sac rupture, you deny me Bellowback Sac Webbing AND I AM FED UP WITH IT.

Time to take out my frustrations on another rebel camp. But lemme get some surrounding campfires first.

Yes, thank you, map, for finding me a route to the bandit camp by the paths. I would prefer not stroll through the front gate, thank you. So I will climb this mountain.

Ah. Here we are. Sharpshot booooooooooow ... GO.

I'm sorry. Three people just dropped dead in front of you, and you're now saying it was a false alarm?!? BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHA! ...Also POONK.

Okay, no one's alerted and I haven't seen anyone but they're still playing the tense music. Maybe because of people inside that bunker?

Definitely people inside that bunker. Oh, this is going to get stupid - shield and melee stupid. Time to improvise.

YOU ARE IN TIME OUT; GO STAND IN THE CORNER. Good! Perfect! Facing the corner like something out of Blair Witch! *WHACKSTABSTABSTAB*

And the other two did not come to your rescue. They will regret that. Shorter range Hunter bow. Poonk-poonk.

(Yeah, my draw speed on that's a little insane too.)

Huh. I guess these are where some of the weapons like the one that destroyed Verbena's forcefield were being developed. ...SYLENS. YOU. LIVING. SHIT.

I mean, I probably could take some of these schematics, but if Boomer ever got hold of them... Yeah, no. I will instead make a boom that she would be PROUD OF.

Okay, and it's still telling me that there's someone in this camp. BUT I SEE NO ONE. Stealthing stealthing stealthing...

...Oh. Right. The front door I avoided like the plague getting here. There is a lone sentry scouting the area, who apparently was not alerted because I cleared the place out so quickly and quietly. Ah well. Charger first, then HEADSHOT.

Okay, I'mma head out and get a few more-- Ooh, that says "unknown settlement", and it's in territory I'm going to need.

Thank you for the news about the rebel camps. At least one in your vicinity will not be a problem anymore, sir. (Kind of wish you had the option to tell them that.)

Right. Lemme do some trading and then see what I can upgrade.

...Not much. Not enough. Guess I'm going to have to go hunting Stalkers again.

Oop. BELLOWBACK CONVOY. DETOUR.

Right. Now lemme see if killing them without hitting the big sac in the back will get me what I need. ...ohthisisgonnahurt...

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK--

(I did get way better at dodge-rolls, though. Just ... not quite better enough. Hence...)

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!

Right. Okay. That's enough for now. Surprisingly, Stalkers are going to be easier. So long as I'm careful about how I hit their stealth generators, since that's the part I'm after.

Approaching from a different angle and ... yeah. They really do climb now, the little fucks. Okay, that one I can see and... GONE. Tree-climbing little shit.

Huh. There's generally at least three in these areas. But the other two aren't coming out. Time to do the usual. Hide in bush ... then shoot proximity flare-mine.

Theeeeeeere you are. My vision is mostly shit but I can see your shimmer surprisingly well. POONK.

Right. Third one. Another proximity mine aaaaaaaaaand...

AW FUCK!

No, I mean, I got the Stalker, but ... there was a duck. I NEED DUCK BITS.

Heeeeeeeeeere ducky ducky ducky...

...fuck.

Well, I can at least upgrade and shop some-- Wait. Is that purple-grade Utaru infiltrator-type gear? GIMME!

Right. To upgrade it, I'm gonna neeeeeeed... Fuck.

Heeeeeeeeere, Stalker Stalker Stalker...

DUCK! Sorry; Duck first, then more Stalkers.

Okay. I can get this a little more upgraded now. For more, I'm going to neeeeeeed... Stalkers. AGAIN. Also ... oh fuck we get Scorchers back?!? AND I HAVE TO HUNT ONE?!? Fuuuuuck.

...However, I do see a Scorcher site not too far from here... And in the same vicinity as some greenshine and a rebel camp--

And I will think about that tomorrow or something.

Look. I know. I know. There is a main quest and I should be getting on with it. However, my play time is limited and my spoons more so. Also I can't decide on whether I want to go for AETHER or DEMETER first. I'm at level ... 49 now, I think? Not 50 but close, anyway. So level isn't an issue.

(See, you might ask how? But ... like ... I hunt constantly when on the move. And when you add up the various XP extras for stealth kills, head shots, weak point shots, etc? I get a lot of XP very quickly.)

Anyway, level's not an issue but what I get out of it is. On the one hand, I figure that DEMETER is probably the quest that will let me deal with those damn metal flowers. On the other hand, @true0neutral informs me that one's reward for dealing with AETHER involves a really spiffy Sharpshot bow? That can also shoot Tear arrows? Aaaaaaand I am conflicted. Heeeeeeelp.

[skiptomyylu]

Okay um- where do I begin?

Why does there seem to be a small collective of people who seem to believe that Aziraphale needs to be like...slapped across the face to realize Heaven is Bad or that he made the "wrong" ""choice"".

Like- hmmmm...

No hate to any of them I guess but it's verryyuuhh..eeeek..

I think what some people need to realize is that:

Point A. People don't HAVE to go through a super huge "glitch in the matrix" mental crumble to realize things and even if they do it doesn't guarantee a change.

Point B. Aziraphale isn't stupid in the slightest

Point C. He KNOWS this already??

Point D. We know that this doesn't guarantee growth (in G.O., idk about irl)

Point E. He didn't go back for Heaven?? (Or at least how it is)

Allow me to elaborate(Prepare to read) :

It feels like whenever people think he needs to have a big crash and burn realizaion or a very "in your face" thing that proves to him heaven is bad or something or the other...uuh...it reads off as "I've given up hope in him figuring this out on his own and nothing else will make him realize this except his own suffering.." (Not saying this is DEFINITELY think but it's what it feeeells like). Which...isn't true

(Point A)

Firstly lets say it DID happen. that won't necessarily make him LEAVE let alone REBELL. When I had my own personal kinda religious breakdowns (of sorts) I didn't just get up and leave the religion. It took me...many many years. I feel like I still haven't left it. I still look up to the heavens and say "sorry" if I feel as though I've said something too blasphemous. Personally it makes him even MORE vulnerable and MORE malleable in the hands of heaven and his god. Experiencing that kind of doubt and mental conflict is HARD. It is so difficult. One side of you is SCREAMING run and the other side is looking for ANY ounce of hope to cling on to to think "maybe it's not so bad".

(Point B and C)

But you know what's so great? Aziraphale doesn't need to experience that! HOORAAYYY! YIPEE! He's already been having his own personal thought's and conflicts about heaven for YEARS! It's been slowly chipping away for 6000 years dude! 6000 YEARS!

The Gravediggers in Edinburgh to Noahs Arc to Job. There's also, idk, him working for almost 11 years to try and redirect the child who he thought was the ANTICHRIST in order to stop the one thing Heaven and Hell longed for for years? He's been thinking and mulling things over and we have SEEN it. MULTIPLE TIMES. Aziraphale is INCREDIBLY intelligent so I promise you he already knows and there's no need for any suffering.

(Point D)

Next: We've already seen the "kill the angel you once were" thing with Crowley and that didn't make Crowley...groww per say??? Or even feel better-

We've SEEN him struggle with accepting his fall. We see he still gets emotional about it (Him in his flat looking up to Heaven and lamenting. Him getting drunk and talking about it). We know they cause him an incredible amount of stress to the point where he was willing o dump the ARCHANGEL (fucking) GABRIEL in the middle of nowhere in order to preserve his safe space.

He's called the existence on earth that they've carved out for themselves precious, peaceful, and fragile. Meaning it brings him comfort but he also feels like it could break in his hands or get destroyed for him at any moment.

All this to say: Killing off who Aziraphale is now doesn't guarantee his betterment or anything.

(Point E)

Final Point:

He did not go back for Heaven. He went back to make a difference. To change things and improve things. For the hopes he can do something to help the side of the "good guys" to start acting like fucking good guys! So yknow...theres no more need for him to try and rebel or have any breakdowns.

I hope all this makes sense. I'm like half asleep typing all of this lmao.

Time for a nap!

Luwa out!

The creepiest take I've ever seen.

You're "giddily excited" to watch a character experience a shattering psychological breakdown? That is deeply concerning.

Worse - you think it's necessary for him to go through something like that for his personal growth? What a dark world that would be, if that were the case.

(Btw he already went through a "rebelling against heaven psychological breakdown moment" in Uz. But that's a bit of a side issue here. After all, the main takeaway from that scene is how utterly f*cked-up it is that he, and Crowley, had to experience something like that at all.)

Friends, if anyone ever tells you you need to "experience a death of self" to grow as a person - RUN.

This is giving the same energy as the "we must die to ourselves in order to give ourselves fully to God" crap that the worst fundamentalists I encountered growing up tried to stuff down people's throats. It's deeply disturbing to me to find variations of that attitude outside of toxic religious communities. I was hoping it was confined there, but apparently not.

People who don't have the qualifications need to stick FAAAAAAR away from this kind of "psychological" analysis. "Kill the angel he once was in order to let the individual shine" is pseudoscientific BS. (Let's not forget Crowley is by no means happy to be a demon, and was just as happy, happier in fact, before he fell.)

This kind of attitude is genuinely dangerous.

[wanderingmind867]

I posted 3,204 times in 2022

That's 3,055 more posts than 2021!

732 posts created (23%)

2,472 posts reblogged (77%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@wanderingmind867

@rebel--hearts

@niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian

@amazinglybeautifulphotography

@everythingfox

I tagged 2,346 of my posts in 2022

Only 27% of my posts had no tags

#asd - 703 posts

#my thoughts - 688 posts

#neurodivergent - 658 posts

#autism - 655 posts

#south park - 495 posts

#autistic - 404 posts

#neurodiversity - 252 posts

#random thoughts - 236 posts

#actually autistic - 226 posts

#stan marsh - 198 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#i also took sation from avatar: the last airbender and how they based their four elements and kingdoms on real world cultures across asia

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I hate the summertime/the heat and humidity associated with it. The extreme heat makes me feel very tired and upset. Thank heavens for air conditioning, I suppose.

52 notes - Posted May 14, 2022

#4

I often worry that I'll never make a friend. The only people I'm close to irl are people either above fifty or just below. My family makes me worry double, because they're always reminding me of this fact and pushing me to make a friend in person.

80 notes - Posted April 24, 2022

#3

You know, I had heard there was another musical like Hamilton from the seventies called 1776, so I just went and looked up it's whole soundtrack, and I can safely say I think it's better than Hamilton in many ways.

Although the songs aren't the most catchy songs I've ever heard, they're still pretty good. Although I liked the few songs from Hamilton I did bother listening to, I found the songs from 1776 have more meaningful lyrics and delve into more dark topics.

Although I haven't seen either films movie adaptation, I can definitely say 1776 is far more historically accurate. 1776 doesn't hold back from discussing slavery and the facts that most everyone back then was at least slightly prejudiced. The song "molasses and rum" is proof of that. I've heard 1776 also deals with Thomas Jefferson being a slave owner far better than Hamilton does, although I can't back that claim up because I haven't seen footage with which to compare.

Finally, I'd just to mention that 1776 and Hamilton both have Main characters who are largely forgotten figures in US history: John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, respectively. The difference here is that John Adams is probably one of my favorite founder fathers, if only because both he and his son were abolitionists. Alexander Hamilton, however, was a slave owner and an elitist. Not exactly inspiring stuff, if you ask me.

88 notes - Posted January 6, 2022

#2

I'm beginning to contemplate whether a post I saw on Reddit about masturbation acting as a stim has any truth to it. I say this because I'm beginning to look for explanations for my masturbation fixation/addiction/etc. I sometimes masturbate three times a day, something I myself consider abnormal.

Once you take into account my lack of sexual feelings towards anything other than writing (and sometimes photos in combination) alongside a fixation with reading erotica and making myself masturbate, and we might see why I don't truly want to chalk it all up to teenage libido. It very well could just be that, but the simplest solution is the hardest to accept, in my case.

88 notes - Posted May 3, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I found this on Reddit, and it explains something about myself I have never quitw been able to articulate:

(It makes just as much sense to say fear of judgement in my case, I think).

202 notes - Posted October 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[universallywriting]

I have no idea if you're still in to SU and I think you may have already answered a question like this before or in your older posts regarding Rose and her actions having some very negative consequences, like Steven suffering badly from it. Do you think if Rose as pink still, should have confronted the diamonds about everything instead of doing the fake death thing she did that led to everyone getting corrupted? This is something I am kind of wondering about sometimes very strongly when this comes to mind wondering if it's a good idea because she's taking responsibility for her actions but then at the same time given the diamonds attitudes, especially White Diamond who didn't listen to Steven and pulled out his gem anyways. I felt like asking that's because I'm just like wondering if things would have been better if she had took and responsibilities like that and I thought it was kind of the whole point with what is going on with her character in Future and we are supposed to be very critical about that because of how steven is feeling

I still haven't seen anyone make a disagreement about that and I thought his "running away from her problems" rant kind of included that issue with her not confronting the diamonds and that if she did he wouldn't be in the situation he was in in Future and taking her responsibilities. I don't think it was specified but I thought the whole point of that Grant was basically almost everything was her fault and if she did took responsibility things would be different even though some part of me feels naive to think that and would be ignoring key issues involving the relationship between pink and the other Diamond, especially white diamond

Also not bashing Rose or Steven here, I feel like this is something I'm seriously wondering about when it comes to the idea of her confronting diamonds and things would be okay or at least better than how things were in Canon. Given that how critical how almost everyone has been very critical of rose, I feel like I want to hear the reasons of how she could have convinced them and whether or not that was actually possible and I'm sorry for the long ask. This is something that kind of requires a lot of thinking and I just felt interested in the what if scenario and whether or not things would be better in that scenario

To me, I feel like the most important part of confronting White Diamond was that Steven was not Pink. If Steven was Pink, if Rose was there, I don't think the confrontation would have changed anything because the Diamonds wouldn't have cared. If Pink isn't gone they can hold on to the chance that they can have her, that things can go back to how they were. It's only when she's truly gone that the Diamonds have to move on.

Pink/Rose fucked up a lot. She's an incredibly flawed character. But I think it's unfair when people say that all of this could have been avoided had she confronted the Diamonds. To do so ignores the fact that Pink's shattering changed the Diamonds, that the war changed them, that time changed them. The Diamonds Pink fled from and the Diamonds Steven met were not the same.

Rose may have lied about what gem she had, but she didn't trick people into a war of independence. She swore off her title and she worked with rebels because she felt like those people deserved freedom. She wasn't secretly trying to get her throne back, she wasn't trying to claim Earth for herself. She wanted gems and life on Earth to live the way they wanted to, and people joined the cause - not for her.

I really don't know if Rose could have convinced the Diamonds without a war. Maybe after the war she could have confronted them, could have changed something, but I think the war changed everything. I think the war made it a possibility. I think people think too much about Rose "leaving problems behind" and not enough about the things she accomplished.

We all leave the world with unfinished business. Rose did her best. She messed up at times. She made bad choices. But it's not like Rose ran away to go hide on an asteroid and let everyone die. She fought beside them. She tried. And I really can't say for sure whether Steven could have done any better had he been in her shoes.

[staygolddindjarin]

Grief

Chapter two: Rebellion

Din Djarin x Reader x Cassian Andor

Series Summary: Raised on Mandalore, born into a bloodline of warriors, no one ever expected for the daughter of a Clan leader to go rogue. Leaving the life of security and making the journey to fight in the war against the empire meant many things... giving up the way of the Mandalore, and giving up a solid future. A future that involves an arranged marriage to a foundling from another clan.

Chapter warnings: some brief angst, this ones pretty mellow ngl

Words: 3.3k

A/n: i was not expecting such a good response from the first chapter but bruh you guys are amazing- anyway here's part two of my brain's misery

Part 2/?

The trip from Mandalore to the planet of Dantooine was long, and still ongoing. We all took turns, watching to see if we were any closer. After each jump from hyperspace, the transport would stop at a space refueling tank, before slowly going onward toward the destination. We must have been traveling several systems across the galaxy. We had a few laughs, mainly while watching Gander try and steal Shyloh's food from his knapsack while he was sleeping. Most of the other time we all just sat in silence, up until this point.

"What do you think we're all going to do once we get to the rebel base?" Merc raised his voice slightly, barely capturing our attentions as we had all been dozing off, and Shyloh was taking watch at the view point.

"What do you mean?" I had asked, not quite sure of what he was getting at. I sat up straighter against the wall, showing my interest in the newfound conversation.

"What branch do you think you'll end up in?" He was in a daze as he spoke, almost unsure of his intentions of bringing it up. His dark eyes were nearly emotionless under his furrowed brow.

"I hadn't really thought about it. I would say maybe something like mechanics," I said, thinking of the best possible use of my talents. I'm sure there's plenty of mechanical help already assisting the rebels, but with the galactic empire growing it's forces by the day, they needed all the help they could get.

"What about flying?" Shyloh perked up from his seat at the window.

"What about it?" I asked, curious as to why he suddenly thought of the new topic.

"You could do it of you wanted to. Be a pilot, I mean. You have the skills," He told me, but I scoffed. He wasn't in any way shape or form was making an ounce of sense at all.

"Speeder control races are a bit different from piloting fighters against the imperial troops don't you think?" I laughed at the idea, but he rolled his eyes, persistent with his opinion.

"It's less different than you think it is. Also mind you, I never saw you lose a race," He objected, but I wasn't having any of it.

"That's because when I raced, my own credits were on the line," I joked, seeing what he would try and come up with next, only to be met with a cold hard stare, before an answer that would shake me to my core.

"Well, now the freedom of the galaxy is on the line."

My smile dropped from my face and I turned to face the other two, who were looking back at me. They didn't expect that answer either. Shyloh was well known to be a boy of few words, and only really spoke to his friends and family. He was a founding just like the rest of them, but he had been with ths clan longer, due to having been saved from a war infested home as a baby.

He could sometimes be very wise, even if he didn't think he was being so. We weren't sure what it was, but he had this sort of presense that was so powerful. We knew when he would walk in a room, or walk out of it. It's like the air would change. Much like it changed now, with his words rendering us all speechless.

The silence was uncomfortable, and I was the one who left it unresloved, so I spoke up in favor of my crewmates to not keep quiet any longer.

"Perhaps I shall see where I am needed first."

"Perhaps you shouldn't be so afraid to explore an option you would excel in," He again rendered me speechless, and I did not have anything else to say this time. I was young, but my mind was not. I could comprehend thoughts the same way that an adult could. I could handle things just as well and if not better than some, too. He was right. I was simply afraid.

"I think we're finally here," Shyloh said, turning back to look out of the view port again.

"Its about time," Gander stood up, slinging his knapsack over his shoulder and standing at the transport door waiting for it to slide up.

We all followed suit, but Shyloh stopped us and held up a warning finger to stay still.

"There's manding droids, we gotta sneak off carefully. They don't look like bulk but they could be armed," He suggested. We were not yet at the rebel base, meaning these were probably droids of the land, and belonged to whoever oversees the exports on this planet.

When the panel opened, we were all careful to first peek out of the transport. This planet was nothing at all like Mandalore, which was dry and hot. This planet was lush with plants. And the air was slightly humid. It was a very welcome contrast from where I spent most of my life.

We all sneakily bolted out of the transport, ducking down behind one of the cargo units placed outside. We saw an opening in what looked like some sort of forrest patch.

There was a chill in the air on this planet, even in the middle of the day. Mandalore only ever got colder at night, when the sun was down and the moons were shining.

"That was close." Merc mumbled as we began to turn around and head into the grasslands, trying to find the rebel base.

We made sure no one was behind us, and were careful to check if any droids had caught sight of us.

We all went to turn around, but as soon as I did, I collided with someone's chest, rather hard might I add, sending me to the ground on my bottom. I didn't even collide that hard with the person, it was just the shock that sent me backwards.

"Need a hand?" I looked up to see a man, a sly smirk on his face as he held his hand out towards me. I took it without question, heaving myself up from the grassy, and somewhat muddy ground beneath me.

"You must be our contact," Merc smiled, and the man nodded, turning and begining to lead us to a speader that was hovering nearby behind a large set of trees.

"We must be careful not to use names outside of the base. I would be more than happy to formally introduce myself once we reach our final destination," He chuckled. It was only now that I realized he had an accent, a thick one. Probably left over from his native tongue that spilled out his mouth when he spoke galactic basic.

I know that sometimes my accent slips in when i speak. I never had to worry about using Mando'a around my fellow crewmates. They were foundlings, and hadn't been raised to speak it. Shyloh was, but he prefered to use galactic basic anyways because he had forgotten so much of it.

We all boarded the speader, Gander and I sitting on the back, our legs hanging off as we held onto the side bars.

"This might be a bumpy ride for you two," The man said, looking at both of us before giving me a wink. I scrunched my face up, not sure how else to react to it. The man was definitely on the younger side, but I wasn't sure how he could possibly see an interest in me.

Maybe he did and I just didn't want him to. Maybe I was still hinged to the idea that I would go back to Mandalore someday and marry my betrothed. I was so young, and hadn't the slightest idea of what feelings I could possibly be harboring, if any at all.

I couldn't deny I found him appealing. Anyone would, at least any human with eyes that is.

His hair was dark, and so were his eyes. He had a bit of stubble along his jaw and above his lip. He was somewhat scruffy looking, but in a good way.

As the speeder went through the forresty stretch of pathway, I kept turning around to catch a glimpse of him. Each time I did I had to look away fast because Gander would give me weird stares.

I would play it off like I was simply taking in the view of the green planet around me, and he wouldn't seem to notice.

After a while, with quite a few twists and turns, and Gander and I nearly falling off the speeder twice, we arrived to our destination.

We all hopped out of the transport, following the man into a giant cargo port. As soon as I looked to my left I could see an X-wing fighter in all it's glory. I had never seen a real one before, just heard stories and viewed holograms.

"Alright. We have about twelve other recruits arriving on this base today, so you will all be attending orientation this evening. As for right now, you look beat, and should rest. PX-74 will assign you to your bunks," He said, gesturing to the droid before beginning to walk away with a nod, but I stopped him before he could take a step.

"Wait a minute... I believe I recall something about a formal introduction," I crossed my arms over my chest and shifted my weight, trying to give off the look of having as much confidence as I could muster. I was putting on a facade, possibly to make me seem more mature. I didn't know the real reason.

He smirked, raising an eyebrow as he scanned me up and down with his dark eyes.

"Cassian Andor," He smiled, then looking right back at me with questioning eyes. "And how about you... you got a name?"

"Y/n from clan Maldrix," I said, my confidence wavering a little when he looked at me the way that he did.

"She's a Mandalorian," Shyloh perked up, and I sent him a warning glare.

"Yeah, sixth generation," Merc added, his cocky smile pasted on his face for all to see and be annoyed by.

"A mandalorian? I've heard the stories but I haven't ever met one. Are you-?"

"I'm not," I cut him off before this got twisted into one big lie. "My mother and father are."

"Doesn't that make you one too?" Cassian furrowed his brow but his tone was somewhat joking and humorous.

"No, it does not," I wasn't harsh with the way my voice came out, but I was firm. Though I wasn't one of them, the mandalorians and all they stood for were very important to me.

"Mandalorian is not a race, it's a creed. Some of the best Mandalorians I ever had the pleasure of knowing didn't even have a bloodline from Mandalore. They were foundlings, like these three," I explained, laying out the facts so that there was no longer any confusion lingering, but now there was a tension that was thicker than the trees on this planet.

"Even still, she can fight just as good as any soldier taken the creed," Merc jumped in, trying to clear the air, and thankfully, it seemed to be working.

"She flies even better," Shyloh mentioned, and I swore I could kill him. He was just so pushy sometimes, even with his massive sense of wisdom.

"You fly?" This peaked Andor's interest, and immediately he seemed more engaged towards me.

"I'm not as good as they say I am," I admitted, but he shook his head.

"No, really... if you can fly we could really use you. We're putting together a team for an air raid that's set to happen about one month's time from now," He came up closer to me and stared me in the eye.

"I'm just a kid, I might really let you down," I joked, trying not to get too caught up in his eye contact. His eyes were much darker when you could see them closely.

"I tell you what, I can arrange for you to have time in the flight simulator after orientation. If we feel you would be an asset, we can add you to the strike team," He said, nodding along to his words. I understood that they might need backup, and if push came to shove, I could maneuver faster than any pilot back on Mandalore. I never lost a race, nor did I ever lose a bet.

"Okay."

I could tell I was blushing from the extra attention I was receiving. I wasn't so sure what about me was so enticing that I deserved it.

"I have to go now to pick up the other recruits from a drop station. I leave you in the capable hands of PX-74," He said, returning to his speeder and letting us be lead off into the base.

"There are only so many open bunks left. Two of you will share one, and the other two will be placed with bunk mates." The metalized voice of the PX unit was strong in our ears, and we all followed after him as we ventured into the long hallway at the end of the cargo port.

The droid stopped at a door about midway through the hall and opened it using the side panel on the wall, revealing a young man that seemed almost younger than me even.

"One of you will be staying here. Which will it be?" The droid asked, turning towards our small group.

"I'll take this one," Shyloh said, stepping forward into the bunk to meet his new roomate.

The boy looked a bit frightened at first, but because of Shyloh's powerful yet calming energy, he seemed to relax almost immediately.

He turned and smiled back at us, waving before the IG unit closed the door and kept us going.

He walked us down passed several more doors, maybe more than twenty, before he stopped at another one and opened it up.

Inside sat a young woman, her legs crossed as she sharpened a knife with a smirk on her face. She looked up and made eye contact with me first.

"I wondered how long it would be before they got someone else in here." Her voice was somewhat low and raspy, but it was kind of soothing in a way.

"One of you-" the IG unit began again, but I stopped him, stepping into the bunk with the girl inside.

"I'll take this one." I smiled at the two boys left before the door closed on my new bunk.

I moved to set my knapsack down on the bottom bunk, but my roomate stopped me.

"Bottom one's mine." She said, looking up from her sharpened knife again to inform me of the sleeping arrangements.

I instead threw my knapsack on the top bunk, trying to climb up into it, but failing miserably.

"You need a hand?" She chuckled, watching my lame attempts to swing my leg up high enough. The fact that there was no ladder should have tipped me off.

"I'll be okay, thanks," I laughed, keeping my attitude loose and positive, though this bunk bed was already causing unnecessary problems for me.

"If you say so," She chuckled again, seeing as I finally managed to haul myself up and onto the bed.

"First try," I joked, and she laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. I think that we would be getting along, because no one ever laughed at my lame sense of humor.

I laid back, resting my arms behind my head and staring blankly at the ceiling.

"So, where are you from?" She piped up, not taking her eyes away from her previous knife. That thing must mean a lot to her.

"Mandalore," I let out, trying to get comfortable on this lumpy pad that was under my head.

"Actually?" She seemed surprised. Everyone had heard of the planet that the mandalorian tribes had resided upon, and usually they understood what kind of people the place would breed.

"Yeah. Left just in time. Tomorrow's my birthday," I shut my eyes continuing our converastion with one less sense. It didn't matter, though. I was still fully awake.

"What would you have had to do?" She pondered curiously, finally looking up towards the bunk in interest.

"Well, to put it short... tomorrow I would have had to swear my freedom away. No living being would ever be able to see my face again till the day I died," I laid it out plain and simple, and she seemed to understand.

"How old are you?" She asked, her trail of questions getting longer and longer.

"Sixteen tomorrow," I answered, feeling a bit more tired now that my eyes had been closed, and the lights in the bunk rooms were dim.

"You're just a baby," She scoffed. "How could they possibly expect you to make that choice so young?"

"It's just the way it's always been there. This is the way," I remembered. Those words used to be said to me nearly ten times a day, and now they only rung in my mind as a memory.

"That's insane. The people on your planet must be crazy to take an oath like that," She muttered.

"You would think so... the strangest part about it is that there are kids brought back as foundlings that take the creed without hesitation. They don't even belong to a bloodline, they just feel as though they have right to the creed as much as anyone else," I silently remembered Din for a moment. He was the bravest, strongest, most loyal Mandalorian I'd ever known. A foundling.

I began to get bitter at the thought of leaving him. He could have made things better for me if I had just given him a chance. I had to let my head get in the way. I needed to think about something else.

"What about you, huh? Where you from?" I asked, changing the subject as quickly and painlessly as possible.

"Alderaan. Born and raised," She said, getting up from the floor and dropping herself on the bottom bunk.

"You been a lot of places since then?" I asked, but she first let out a heavy sigh before speaking.

"Only too many to count," She said, settling herself on the bunk like I had done.

"Must be nice..." I muttered. Finally able to relax on this pathetic excuse for a bed pad. Of course I couldn't complain. I'm the one who chose the life of the rebellion, including their miserable bedding. "I've never been anywhere outside my home planet until now. I haven't even seen the entirety of my own planet."

"Most new comers are the same. They haven't been anywhere else, then they come here and its like we're moving non stop. Base to base, on just about every planet in this galaxy," She reassured. At least now I didn't feel so out of place.

"How long have you been stationed here?" I asked, unsure of how long I would get to adjust to things.

"A few months. It's likely we'll have to leave soon. There's rumors of the imperials knowing our location," She answered, rolling her eyes, thought I couldn't see from the top bunk.

"You're kidding," I scoffed. After just getting here, I might have to up and leave again. I'll have to learn to accept this new life, it's what I wanted.

"I wish I was, kid," She added.

"I have a name," I retorted back, not a fan of the nickname 'kid'. I waited for her to ask me what it was, but when she stayed silent I sighed. "It's Y/n."

"I'll call you what you are... now get some rest, they'll come pounding on that door in a few hours for orientation," She said, as though she somehow had grown to a habit of mothering me only five minutes after we met. I dropped the conversation and drifted off to sleep, my eyes were too heavy to keep open anymore anyway.

.

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Tags open

A/n: okay so like i wrote this a while before everything with gina carano happened and i do not in any way condone her whatsoever so let's pretend she's been recast already...

[forgottenronan]

ronan out here as team big brother to everyone (w eithne as team big sister <3) and im LIVING for it <3333 tbh he's not as good at it as he once was bc he's frankly a broken man whose fighting to put himself back together when all the pieces don't fit anymore buT he ~is trying (tho ngl sometimes his v effort makes things worSe but anyway here we are one step forward two back and all that jazz one day at a time etc etc)

ooooh kale having roots elsewhere is really interesting! i def feel like the frosts all would've wanted to interrogate him abt his travels and everything he'd seen hahaha but also yes! that def makes sense that he might feel a lil like an outsider looking in if he arrived sm later and the others had all grown up together, etc!! i def feel like, as far as ronan's concerned tho, he's part of the team now! i mean, padraig/reaves bro are his two best friends but ronan def sees the rebels as his family and obv kale is a key member so he's family in ronan's book! i do think lil ronan would've been v welcoming back in the day but yeah obv there's no replacement for those 14 years and poor kale that must've still been quite lonely for him!!!

i do think pre-war!ronan had a kinda...robb stark/peter pevensie thing going but also this laughing, mischievous bent that could come out w friends like...not to the extent of cillian or anything but he was much freer and happier and he was soooo idealistic he wanted to be a knight and do knightly things like there was defff a lil brienne of tarth/young!jaime lannister idealism abt all of that like...obv king arthur doesn't exist here but he effectively wanted to be a knight of the round table yknow seeing the world and spreading good and doing the right thing while having adventures and rescuing beautiful maidens and seeing magic up close and personal and protecting the vulnerable and generally spreading good everywhere he went, and, like, save the world and uphold the rule of law in a just and generous kindsom and all that kinda thing!! he wanted to be sir galahad or peter pevensie but instead he's robin hood but, like...dark...he'd def more dean winchester/edward elric (if you've seen fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood [w japanese subtitles -- the dub is toootally different and not nearly as good!]...and if you haven't...what're you doing! stop whatever you're doing and go watch it now! ;DD its soooo so good!!!!) than robb stark/peter pevensie now

i can see where ronan may be guilty of underestimating kale bc...i think that's a thing that ronan tends to do ngl (it comes out of his whole over-protective big bro thing esp now paired w his ptsd + 'ive lost sm i can't bear to lose more' deal) but esp bc kale has a lot of similarities to cillian, and ronan's spent his whole life worrying abt the scrapes cillian's forever getting himself into (lbr even as a kid) alksdjfkljdsf this being said, ronan can be a bit changeable post-war and like he def will go from I CANT RISK THEM I WONT DO THIS MISSION (insert some excuse) to like WE MUST DO THIS NO MATTER WHAT and pushing past reason for it soooo that's fun!! -- in general, i do think he's somewhere in the middle but yeah the boy's got demons and they show themselves at weird times in weird ways sometimes laskdjfkjdsf

GRUMPY/SUNSHINE!!!! you know that's my fav <3333 i love it!!! and frankly, annoyed as im CONFIDENT he sometimes acts (he can be an ass sometimes and i am o sorry about him lkajsdfkjsdf), he really needs that in his life!!! ronan: 'it is NOT an affectionate eye roll its a i-mean-business-eye-roll' (but actually it is an affectionate eye roll) but honestly i think he (wouldn't never admit it but he) relies on kale to give him a dose of optimism to help balance his own doom and gloom psyche!! i do think he sometimes gets lost in his own EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE outlook and pulls a full on (handsome ;D) squidward waaaaay too easily hahaha but you'll never (or at least rarely) catch him saying so alksdjfkjsdf

i love these!!! the hc's are now full canon as far as im concerned <33333

ooc | Kale & Ronan

I feel like Kale was an only child, but he always looked up to Ronan as an older brother!!??? Honestly, I feel like he looked up to his entire friend group tbh of Ronan/Paidrag/Reaves bro (rip). And I feel like Kale hung out with them sometimes, but he was a lil younger and while they were all good friends, I don't think Kale ever had that history/bond that the others had? I'm also thinking that maybe Kale's family didn't come to Malconaire until he was like 14/15 and so Ronan and his group of friends had already been well established by then??

I feel like their relationship with Ronan in his post-war era, is kinda a grumpy/sunshine thing lmao??? Like Kale has chosen to deal with his own post-war trauma by bottling up and completely ignoring his negative emotions!!!!! And continuing to be the optimistic / outgoing / fun-loving / joking guy he's always been!!! And now he's working with Ronan who has just become super serious all the time??? I just see Ronan constantly eyerolling at like everything Kale says and does (Kale: but it's an affectionate eye roll!) And Kale just completely unfazed by Ronan's temper!

I feel like things are a little ~less~ contrasted between them now then it was at the start, but yeah!!

Anyway, those are my headcanons about the relationship, lmk what you think!!!

[omegas-spaghettios]

The Batch can 100% rescue Crosshair, y'all just haven't thought about it.

I have seen some posts and comments bemoaning Crosshair fans' frustration with the Batch not rescuing him. "Omega is their priority, they can't do it without putting her at risk, the Empire is too powerful.", all things I have read that supposedly make it so the Batch can't attempt to liberate Crosshair.

All of them are false.

I am going to go into excruciating detail of all of the ways I can think of that the Batch could reasonably do it.

Also, all of these are not just my ideas! I talked with @bimormondisaster pretty lengthily about this, a lot of the ideas are hers, check her out!

Now, the first "reason" why the Batch can't.

1) They can't put Omega at risk

I agree that taking Omega to try and liberate Crosshair is putting her at risk. But guess what? Cut Lawquane exists.

Cut has already shown he would happily take Omega in and raise her in his family. I seriously doubt Rex or the Batch have lost contact with him when he moved, they could contact him and ask him to watch Omega, he almost certainly would. Best case scenario the Batch succeeds and Omega just got a fun few days at Cut's house, they all have a reunion where Crosshair gets to see Omega and Cut again, they can have a nice reunion and celebration party. Worst case? The Batch fail and die, where Omega is safe and in good hands with Cut's family. Since the Batch's chips are removed and there is no evidence in canon to suggest they can be replaced, there is little risk of the Batch being reprogrammed and hunting after Cut.

Omega is also just part of the Batch now, guys. They've said this. The Batch has agreed to let her take any risk they take, and she could be incredibly helpful on a Raid on Kamino if it came to it, she could be a big help in saving Crosshair and I'm sure she would LOVE to help.

2) Kamino/The Empire is Too Powerful

First of all, no they aren't. The Clone Wars has shown us on multiple occasions that Kamino is able to be infiltrated. During the Rookies arc, we see that Ventress made it on planet with Aqua droids. They relied on Debris to build attack ships, but Ventress and the droids got there BEFORE Grievous did. This shows it is possible to get on planet undetected. Then the Conspiracy arc shows that if you are smart, you can navigate Kamino's defenses. Fives and AZ ALONE managed to infiltrate the medical bay, the DNA chambers, and the place where the earliest clones were being grown. They did that on there own! Not to discredit Fives, he is incredibly capable. But so is the Batch. Tech probably already knows that place inside and out, but if he doesn't he can learn very quickly. Omega also likely knows the facility incredibly well. If they don't, they could just convince a Droid like AZ to help or flat out reprogram them. Also, once in the facility, Hunter would certainly be able to track Crosshair. Bonus points, Fives got from the water up into the facility undetected, so between those two TCW arcs there is a clear demonstrated path to get into and around the facility.

Also, the Batch's entire Clone Wars career was designed around impossible missions. They were the ones called in when literally no other clones could cut it, I seriously doubt Kamino is the worst thing they have waded in to.

But even if it was too hard to do that for them (it isn't), they could try other avenues. The Batch could create a staging ground and dare Crosshair to come after them, which is almost certainly would. The Galaxy is so freaking big the writers could come up with countless planets and staging grounds for the Batch to create a good defensible position, but a good idea is a CIS war outpost.

We saw in Rebels that many old outposts and forts from The Clone Wars were abandoned. While I severely doubt that the Republic ones have been abandoned by this point in the timeline, they could have pretty good luck finding a CIS one. Most of the droids were deactivated, so finding a Fort or outpost or armory and seizing it should be easier than storming Kamino. They may have to deal with scrappers or pirates, but they are decidedly less intimidating than Kamino. Take a CIS post, take a few days to learn it, get it running, and modify it for a battle, and they're golden! Those facilities were DESIGNED for war, the hard part is just getting it functioning. They could fix it up, dig in their heels and dare Crosshair to attempt it, which they could capture him during the battle.

3) "They don't have the manpower"

Sure they do, I have already established that Kamino is not impossible to get around, one clone and Droid did it, for Christ's sake. But fine, they don't want to do it with just Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Echo. Good news! They have allies!

They could ask Rex. Rex at least has Trace and Rafa, undoubtedly more. If they went to Rex and asked for his help in exchange for their help in the future, that can boost their numbers.

Then they have Cid. Now she will charge. But if they spend time doing jobs and saving up, they could pay for Cid's help in acquiring supplies or allies who would be willing to help for hire. Cid also might just be willing to point them in the direction of someone who could help.

Then there is Saw Gerrera. They would have to find him, but I'm SURE he would help. If they went to him and said "hey, we need your help rescuing a brother, in exchange for your help we will give you guided access to Kamino and help you sabotage or damage it while we are there." Saw would almost certainly jump at the chance.

Then, absolute worst case scenario, they could find battle droids. We have already seen in the series where they could find some, they are probably not incredibly hard to get. They might even be on Bracca, too. They could take some time and find droids to reprogram and build themselves a force that way.

Even just ONE of those 4 options could help. If they went for all 4, they legit have the allies to form a small army, that's enough.

4) How to remove Crosshair's Chip

This isn't criticism I have seen but it's more evidence, you can remove his chip easily. Do it on Kamino during the raid, for one. The procedure itself takes only a few minutes. Granted, that is a lot of time in a high stress situation. But even if Crosshair took as long as Wrecker to recover, taking an unconscious Crosshair out of Kamino would be just as easy if not easier to take than an unconscious or tied up Crosshair with an active chip.

I also doubt the empire figured out why the Batch were on Bracca, most likely thought they were just scavenging. They could return to Bracca on another ship and use their facility. But if they don't want to do that, the ship Rex went down on in Season 7 has one. If not that, Tech has worked personally with the equipment on the ship, he could certainly find somewhere in the Galaxy with comparable equipment to do the procedure.

In Conclusion

Please stop saying shit to Crosshair fans about this. The Batch is well within their power to do this, they have the resources available. They can do it now, but they haven't yet. I am aware a lot of these resources were found during the first half of the season. But now they have them and no explicit goal, they can 100% look at all of these ways or even ways I haven't thought of, pick one, and do it.

[luciferfemme]

Hello, i am very curious about your religious beliefs and if you do not mind, could you tell me the basics of it? I’m very sorry to bother, i would search it on the internet but many are rude and prejudiced towards your religion :((( so i wanna get the true facts. Do you have a place of worship? Do you pray? Are there are sort of rituals you preform or things you can’t do (like how people who practice Judaism can’t eat certain foods) ?? ❤️❤️ pls ignore if this is too personal

Hiii thank you so much for asking! I actually love talking about it so not to worry. So I feel like Luciferian worship is (at least for me) not unlike other Pagan religions in the sense that it's very like find what works for you and everything else don't worry about it? Like I have an altar in my room dedicated to Lucifer. I have items specifically to represent him (and like I have discovered this through some decent websites about like the Left Hand Path and Luciferian worship). For instance, I have roses, I have this beautiful skull with a gold snake wrapped around it. I have of course a statue of Baphomet which is often a representation of Luciferian/Satanic worship. I pray to him (I try to make it nightly but sometimes I don't always remember but I always communicate with him in some form). Typically I like to have a candle and incense going when I'm at my altar. Scents I understand he enjoys are like cinnamon, rose, and frankincense. And I just kind of pray to him. I have a few prayers specifically--but I also just kind of talk about my day and thank him (a lot oh my Lucifer the way he has made my life better).

Sometimes communing with him is like closing my eyes and just imagining him before me and talking that way. I actually picture him as a butch so that adds to it. Honestly the crux of Luciferian worship and Satanic worship in general is like being your own god worshiping yourself but there's different ways to go about it. There's what's called Theistic Luciferian worship which is what I practice where you view him as a god and then there's like nontheistic I'm not sure if that's the right word where you don't view him as a god or pray to him specifically but just kind of worship what he represents which is like embracing your own power and honestly I think we all need that from time to time.

There's not really anything I can't do, but there are things that I know he would be disappointed in like not being true to myself and how I feel.

A lot of people wrongly assume that Lucifer is the bad guy but I think if there's anything I've learned is that he's the bad guy in someone else's book. He didn't get to make up the story that people decided about him. He just said hey I don't want to be told I have to follow someone else's rules. Like he rebelled against something he didn't believe in and said I can be my own god.

That's just kind of my own way of looking at it all. I grew up Catholic so I had a lot of unpacking of like 'FEAR" and once I realized that like actually Lucifer isn't just an evil force it changed everything for me. I really feel like he's blessed me in so many ways.

Also as an aside one of the more unfortunate aspects about Satanism in general is there are a lot of shitty people who try to use it for shitty things. (Church of Satan for example and JoyofSatan just to name a few). It's shameful and I feel like neither Lucifer nor Satan are on their side (yes they are different-- but one does have to be careful because there are like sources that are shitty. Anton Levay was one of them--I could go into like a whole diatribe about these aspects or how some Satanists have tried to coopt Lilith despite many Jewish Satanists explicitly saying that she is not something that anyone who is not Jewish should be interacting with. There's a blog on here I really like I haven't seen in a while called Salt and Sulphur I believe. Really good information.